Hoop-fastening.



I PATENTED SEPT. 22, 1903. R. R. STANNARD.

HOOP FASTENING. Y

APPLICATION rum) D20. 2, 1902.

E0 MODEL.

' INVENTOR.

' WITNESSES.

IIS

UNITED STATES Patented September 22, 1903 PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT R. sT NARD, OF wnrnnnunr, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO BLAKE AND JOHNSON, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, A CORPO- RATION OF CONNECTICUT.

HOOP-FASTENING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 739,512, dated September 22, 1903.

Application filed December 2,1902. Serial No. 133,533. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that '1, ROBERT R. STANNARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Waterbury, county of New Haven, State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Hoop-Fastening, of which the following is a specification. p

My invention has for its object to provide a fastening for wire hoops for barrels that will enable manufacturers of barrels to. use wire hoops entirely not only upon the chimes but upon the bilges of barrels.

It is of course well understood that steelwire hoops have muchgreater tensile strength than wooden hoops, are easily driven to place, and, furthermore, cost less than wooden hoops. In order,howev er, to render theuse of steel-wire hoops practical,itis necessary that a fastening should be devised which maybe hoop in place by being driven straight into the barrel, will not require the slightest change in the hoop and may be used upon any kind of wire hoop, will be so inexpensive to produce and easy to use as not to add appreciably to the costof a vbarrel, will permit the hoop to be driven farther down upon the barrel should the staves shrink, and will securely lock it in place after it has been driven down, so as to prevent the hoop from lifting, which will work equally well upon fiat staves and not in close contact therewith, and which may, if required, be separate from the hoops, so as to be used to fasten wire hoops after redrivingupon barrels already in use.

With these and other objects in view I have devised the novel hoop-fastening, which will be hereinafter described, and then specifically pointed out in the claims hereunto appended. v

In the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is an elevation of a portion of-a barrel, illustrating the manner in which wire hoops are retained in place thereon by the use of my novel fastening; and Figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are detail views, on an enlarged scale, showing a portion of a barrel-stave and a hoop in section and the hoop-fastening in elevation, Fig. 2 showing in dotted lines the position of the fastening after the hoop is driven to place and before the fastening is driven into the barrel, Fig. 3 difiering from Fig. 2 only in that the hook end of the piece of wire from which the fastening is formed is turned out ward slightly, Fig. 4sshowing the position of the fastening andhoop after the hoop has been redriven upon the barrel and has been again locked in place by the fastening, and Fig. 5 showing a form in which the hook of the fastening only extends far enough around the hoop to retain the hoop securely in place in use, but without looking the fastening to the hoop and making it .a permanent part thereof, it being contemplated that fastenings having hooks that form a half-circle, more or loss, may bevsold in bulk and used in connection with old or new barrels having wire hoops not already provided with my novel fastenings. r

The fastening is madefrom apiece of wire comprising a straight .portion, which I term the shank and have indicated by 10, a portion 11,which is bent at an angle to the shank, and an outwardly-curved hook 12 at the other end. In practice the point may be bent at approximately a right angle to the shank, although it is immaterial, so far as the principle of the invention is concerned, if the point is bent at a slightly obtuse or a slightly acute angle to the shank. The other end of the fastening is flattened and taperedfrom the end toward the middle, as shown in the drawings, and is curved around to form thehook 12, which receives and may or may not approximately encircle the hoop, so as to be permanently but not rigidly attached thereto. If preferred, the ends of the blanks at which the hooks are formed may be turned outward slightly, asat 15, so that when hoops are redriven the hooks may be curved about them, as in Fig. 4, the ends 15 recurving outward if driven against the shank.

13 indicates a wirebarrel-hoop, and 14 the staves of a barrel. 1

The operation of my novel fastening will be readily understood from the drawings. In practice three or more fastenings may be used upon each hoop. When it is desired to have the fastenings part of the hoops, the hooks are made long enough to approximately encircle the hoop, as in Figs. 2 and 3. The hoops may then be driven to place upon a barrel in the usual Way, the position of the fastenings after the hoop has been driven to place being indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2. The operator then by means of a blow upon the outer side of the fastening drives the point into the barrel and locks the hoop securely thereto. Owing to the flattening and tapering of the hook portion of the fastener, as shown, the curving of said hook portion around a barrel} hoop is facilitated, for the reason that the thin and fiat and relatively wide end of the hook portion is guided around the hoop by the blows thereupon imparted by a hammer or other equivalent tool. Should the barrel shrink or should it be necessary for any reason to drive the hoops farther on, my novel fastenings do not interfere to the slightest extent, as the hooks may be curved about the hoops as they are driven down, encircling them still more, the points of the fastenings remaining in the wood of the staves and the red riving and relocking of the hoops being effected without detaching the points from the wood or even loosening them, as clearly indicated in Fig. 4, which see in connection with Fig. 3. When the hoop is driven down by subjecting the upper surface of the flattened hook portion of the fastener to blows, the said flattened portion is caused to readily curl around the hoop, While still fitting it closely. It is wholly unimportant, so far as the operation of the fastening is concerned, whether all portions of the hoop lie closely in contact with the barrel or not, it being of course well known that the outer sides of barrel-staves are frequently more or less flat, so that portions of the hoop will not lie in contact therewith. It should be noted that the redriving of a hoop does not loosen the fastenings to the slightest extent, but leaves the points firmly seated in the staves.

The use of the form illustrated in Fig. 5 is substantially the same, the only difference being that the fastenings are not permanently secured to the hoops. This form may be used upon any wire-hooped barrels, new or old,that were not originally provided with my novel fastenings. Fastenings of theformillustrated in Fig. 5 are applied by slipping the fiattened outer ends of the hooks under the hoops, then driving the hoops to place, if not already tight, and then driving the points of the fastenings into the barrel, as before. Should a hoop require redriving, the hooks are simply curved about the hoop after it has been set to place, as before.

While I have referred to the staves 14 (see Fig. 1) as forming a portion of a barrel, it is to be understood that the invention may be equally well applied to any other liquid-com taining vessel composed of staves, such as a cask, tub, or wooden pail.

Having thus described my invention, I claim- 1. The combination with a vessel adapted to contain liquid and comprising staves, of a hoop circular in cross-section, and a fastening for said hoop, said fastening having at one end an arm or projection for entering a stave and at the other end a curved hook, substantially as and for the purpose described:

2. A hoop-fastener comprising a shank having at one end an arm or projection for entering a stave and at the other end a hook curved to fit a hoop that is circular in crosssection, the shank and hook portion of the fastener being flattened and tapered to reduce its thickness and enable the hook portion to fit and readily curl around the hoop when its upper surface is subjected to blows.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ROBERT R. STANNARD.

Witnesses:

A. M. WOOSTER, S. W. ATHERTON. 

